Chapter 19

Shion sat on a bench while staring in the distance as people passed by, not paying any attention to her. Hobgoblins, dragonewts, high orcs, and kijin, just hurrying about their business. Everyone had a role to fulfill. Everyone except her.

Even after the naming, she formally remained the bodyguard of the princess, now named Shuna, but within Tempest, she didn't really need any protection. Shion let out a long sigh and looked down at the pavement. 'I could have helped you know. I'm not that bad at weaving and tailoring.'

They told her to go after the first day of trying. Shuna was a natural and excelled at that sort of work; Shion, on the other hand, managed to break the loom. 'It was not my fault the thing was so fragile and useless.'

She gently dragged her hand over the varnished planks of the bench. Someone had put a lot of effort into making them even and smooth. 'Maybe I could do woodwork? That shouldn't be too hard.'

However, after observing the marvelously crafted bench for a good minute she was forced to drop the idea. Shion had to admit to herself that she didn't know a thing about woodworking or blacksmithing or every other heavy crafting industry.

The worst part of the current situation was that out of the six recognized by Lord Momonga and given more unique names she was the only one without any particular duties.

Benimaru and Souei worked under Lord Demiurge, handling the military and intelligence, a trade that suited both of them perfectly. Old Hakurou was training under Lord Cocytus, and Shuna with Kurobe were working hard under Lord Peroronchino to expand the industries of Tempest.

It's not that she didn't try to find another place. As a passionate cook, Shion volunteered to help in the central kitchen that produced food for the day workers. That however didn't last long as well. Not even an hour in, the head chef tossed her out and told her never to set foot in the kitchen again. Some weak-minded idiot had vomited out her samples. 'Moron didn't know what good cooking was. To hell with them, I can find something else to do.'

Still, the question remained: what could she do? Joining the army and becoming a regular soldier was always an option but it felt like a step-down career-wise. 'I am not some common grunt anymore. I was guarding the princess!'

Shion leaned back on the bench and looked up at the clear blue sky. The brightly shining sun was too much for her eyes to bear so she closed them and just listened to the bustling city.

'When was the last time I just sat like this?' It must have been at least a few years. Shuna rarely just sat in one place and did nothing. The young ogress was always busy with something even if it was something as simple as enjoying a cup of tea.

"What should I do?" She asked herself absentmindedly. 'Maybe I could ask one of the Lords to give me work?' It surely would be much easier to just follow orders than try to figure out what to do by herself. 'Oh, I could be an assistant or secretary!'

Shion jumped to her feet and straightened out her clothing. 'Hmm, I still look like a warrior. I know, I should ask Shuna to help me make a formal set of clothing!'

A commotion nearby caught her attention and she turned around to see Lord Momonga walking with Lady Albedo behind him. The overlord was once again appearing before his adoring subjects

'I wonder what kind of relationship Lady Albedo has with Lord Momonga? She stands so close to him, as a wife or consort would do. But why is she so reserved?' Shion could not figure out what sort of relationship the two had. Some of the Tempest's denizens speculated that she might be Momonga's concubine but for whatever reason, it was not made public knowledge.

Although Shion, like everyone else, was instructed to not get into Lord's way for no reason she walked in Momonga's direction with determination. She, after all, had a good reason to approach him. 'I will ask to become Lord Momonga's assistant or secretary! Albedo is just an advisor she surely would not get in the way.'

There was no stopping her now. She ran up to the Overlord and bowed. "Lord Momonga."

"Ah, Shion, good to see you. How is your life in Tempest?" Momonga asked. Out of all the recently named people he had been particularly interested in, her name was oddly absent from the reports about their activities.

"I have yet to find my place, but I could become your private secretary! I am the perfect choice for that job. You will not find anyone better." Shion said louder and with more excitement than she planned to.

Before Momonga could figure out how to politely react to her request, Albedo hissed "You dare!" and walked past him with her heels loudly clacking against the pavement. Before he could even say a word Albedo had grabbed Shion by the neck and lifted her off the ground.

Shocked at the succubus extreme reaction he raised his hand to stop her, but the words got stuck in his throat, while the snarling demoness slapped the kijin.

The resulting shockwave snapped him out of the shock as Momonga shouted

"Albedo!" With a sound of shattering glass all around him. The nearby glass windows could not withstand the wrath of the overseer, breaking in response to her rash action.

The succubus turned to him and quickly let go of Shion who slumped to her knees and held herself up with one hand. It was a small miracle that she managed to remain conscious after such a blow. "Lord Momonga, the audacity of this…"

'I can't let her go around assaulting others so eagerly. Could her reaction be justified? No! This was far out of the line.'

"Albedo! She just asked for a job position and you attacked her!"

Momonga interrupted her with a raised voice.

Albedo's eyes went wide as she stared back shocked and then looked down while holding her hands. She stood like a scolded child and whimpered. "I…I'm sorry… Lord Momonga… I…"

"What's done is done." Momonga said sternly, then walked up to Shion, and knelt in front of her. "Are you alright?" He asked observing the right side of her face getting blue and swelling up and then slowly healing up as her regeneration kicked in.

"All three of you are spinning Lord Momonga." Shion responded dizzily.

"Here, drink this." he offered her one of the low-tier hipocute healing potions just in case.

When Shion just blinked confused, he opened the potion and quietly brought it to her mouth helping her drink its contents.

"Better?"

Shion blinked once again, quickly stood up, and said. "Thank you Lord Momonga, I'm feeling good as new."

"That's good to hear." Momonga said as he stood up and looked at Albedo who still stood unmoving and looking down.

{ I know you mean well, but you can't just assault Tempest's citizens for such simple questions! She just wanted a job. }

{ I am so sorry Lord Momonga. I… I thought she wanted to take my place. }

{ Your place? But you are the guardian overseer, far more than a simple secretary. }

Albedo's face lit up in a smile and then reddened at the compliment as she hastily asked. "How can I make amends for my rash actions, Lord Momonga?"

"Shion, I understand you are looking for a job?" The Overlord turned his attention back to kijin who stood beside him with the same determination on her face as before. Seemingly even Albedo's assault didn't lessen her resolve to get a job.

"Yes, Lord Momonga." Shion said, straightening out like a soldier.

"Albedo, could you find her a position? If she wants to be an assistant or secretary, I'm sure someone from the floor guardians could use extra help."

"As you command." Albedo responded with a bow and then turned to Shion. "Wait for me in the palace at noon."

This whole encounter surely went differently than she imagined it but nonetheless, she got what she wanted. She just needed to wait and see who she would be helping.

The minutes ticked by painfully slowly as she waited outside the throne room. At first, she stood in one spot but impatience took over her and she started to slowly pace back and forth. 'Why is this taking so long?'

The moment the clock hit twelve Albedo appeared in front of her. "Let's go, I have a job for you." Albedo made a motion for her to follow.

Shion quickly obeyed and followed the succubus.

It took a good minute to figure out that they had arrived at Albedo's office where a smaller chair with a pile of papers waited for her on a smaller desk beside the main one which was a picture of perfect order.

Shion gave a quick glance around to determine more about the personality of her superior. Same as the table, the entire office was not only perfectly clean but organized to perfection as well.

"You will sort the reports by type and region and pack them for me to review." Albedo explained motioning for her to take her seat as she herself sat down behind her desk. "I assume you will be capable of such a task?" She added with a gentle smile.

"There won't be any problems, Lady Albedo." Shion said with a chipper voice and sat down at the table, ignoring Albedo's subtly threatening expression. This work surely was cut out for her. Piles upon piles of almost identical reports needed to be sorted out quickly. Today's events already showed how little patience her new superior had and she for one was not too keen on repeating the experience of being slapped by Albedo.

Still, having a purpose once again, gave her a sense of satisfaction as she dug into the task with a happy hum. Albedo glanced at her with a raised eyebrow but refrained from commenting.

If she would save even a few minutes by employing this kijin as her assistant, then she could spend more time taking off the job from Lord Momonga's shoulders and that was all that mattered.

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The role of a guildmaster of the Free Guilds branch was never an easy one. Just as he was about to declare the Blumund's border with Jura less dangerous a letter ruining his plan was delivered to him with post haste.

Fuze leaned back in his chair, wrinkled his nose in discontent, and reread the contents of the guild grand master's letter the second time. Something big was happening in Jura. Even with a free guilds information network, there were rather few pieces of intel to work with.

The fact was that Dwargon had entered into a trade agreement with the monster nation in Jura called Tempest Hegemony, and save for Dwargon merchants no one else was able to cross the Jura border from Dwargon's side, as it was too tightly guarded by hoards of deadmen and some sort of evolved sprites.

Fuze scratched his neck as a rather unpleasant revelation occurred. 'Shizue lied to me. She knew something was going on there and chose to lie about it. Why?'

Why his old friend decided to hide such information was unclear. 'Maybe she saw the fledgling kingdom and chose to protect it from the prying eyes of the humans? The Church in particular might decide to take a hostile action. But why would she care about monsters in the first place? Could it be that she saw something that made her think hiding the monster nation was the best option?'

Either way, the guild master had requested to investigate Jura from Blumund's side in hopes of getting more information.

Was it fortunate or not, there was just a group in mind; Kaval's party. Kaval, Eren, and Gido were B-ranked adventurers, and should be able to handle pretty much everything that was found in Jura if they were careful.

Over the two years he had known them, Fuze had found the group very reliable, but chaotic and prone to get on his nerves with their constant whining about, pretty much, everything.

Fuze took a small flask out of the drawer, took a small gulp with a flinch and then drank the last of his tea to mask the odor of the spirit. 'This is what they make me do.'

He then called in his secretary and instructed her to find the team, and meanwhile put together an introductory letter as the Free Guild's guildmaster of the Blumund's branch. If the monsters could be reasoned with it was best to start with some basic diplomacy, especially if they already had a diplomatic relationship with dwarves.

Luckily they recently returned from the mission and had not taken off just yet. As usual, the trio was busy spending every bit of money they had earned on things they likely didn't need.

Not even a few hours later the trio sat on the large sofa in Fuze's office.

"I have a crucial task for you here..."

"Can't you pick someone else? We just returned from a mission." Kaval let out an unsatisfied whine.

"Stop whining, you had the entire week off. As I said, I have a crucial task for you. It has come to my attention that there might be a monster nation forming in the Forest of Jura and it needs to be investigated. As of now the only thing we know is that it is called the Tempest Hegemony and is run by majins of unknown danger ranking."

"Shouldn't you send more people there to deal with it then? I mean, if we don't even know how strong the monsters are, you could be sending us to certain death." Eren said with an uncharacteristic concern in her voice.

"You will not try to fight them. If possible establish contact as guild's and Blumund's representatives, if not, scout the area and retreat. Are my orders clear enough?"

"Can we get a forward payment for this one? We need to prepare for a long journey." Eran said switching from serious to enthusiastically chiper.

"You just received payment for the previous mission. Did you understand my orders?" Fuze said with a flat tone. 'Those bums always try to get more money from me like I'm their uncle.'

"Yes. Go to Jura, and establish contact. If things go south, run. Now can we get the forward payment, Please?" Eran asked again, this time in a small voice with big puppy eyes.

Fuze glared at her for a moment, but then let out an annoyed sigh, took a piece of paper out of a drawer, scribbled something on it, and gave it to Kaval together with the letter. "Fine, you will get twenty percent. Here is an introductory letter for the Leader of Tempest. Now, get out of my office before I change my mind."

"Yes, sir." All three responded in unison and left Fuze's office in hurry.

Eran was beaming at her successful hustle while they descended the stairs. "You see! We got a nice starting bonus all thanks to me."

"This will stop working one day." Gido remarked.

"Don't be such a pessimist, Fuze loves us. We are his best team." Eran shot back.

"He surely feels like an abusive relative from time to time." Kaval said. "We need to stack up on dried food and fix the hole in our tent.

"I thought you had it fixed?" Gido asked with a slight tone of annoyance. As usual, people in the reception area were staring at them. They were semi-famous after all but often not exactly for the right reasons. Some of their bigger blunders were a well-known topic of gossip among their fellow adventurers.

"Miss, I can eat the entire tavern empty, was dragging us around for two days straight and I didn't have the time."

"Shut up. You had plenty of time. Maybe if you flirted less with the tavern maids and actually did your job as the leader…"

"Oh shut it. I have needs, you know."

"Can you two not start this again? We need to prepare for the mission." Gido said in a tired voice.

"He started..." "She started.." Both pointed fingers at one another.

'Why do I even bother.' Gido grimly mused. During the mission, they acted more or less like adults, but once the time off started it was a competition to see who could come off as more childish between these two.

In either case, there was a long road ahead of them, and travel through the forest was not easy. Not to mention the high risk of the mission itself. A nation of monsters was not that unheard of. In a sense, most demon lords ruled over nations of monsters but there was never one in Jura.

The trio left the guild building to buy the necessary supplies in their usual chaotic manner, unaware of where Fuze was unwittingly sending them.

Proofreading by placid_void and I AM THE STRING CUTTER and kamijazz